As the use of mobile communication terminals, such as cellular phones, PCS phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc., increases with the development of mobile communication techniques, diverse additional services using the mobile communication terminal, such as voice message services, radio data communication services, text message services, etc., have been developed. Among them, the text message service has become a more important message transferring method than the voice call service, with respect to youngsters in their teens and twenties. Also, in order to satisfy the consumers' tastes and to improve the quality of service, communication service providers and terminal manufacturers have made a great investment in the development of diverse services and the manufacture of terminals having more useful functions.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a related art text message transmitting process for a mobile communication terminal. A sender selects a text message function from a function selection menu that is displayed on a screen of the terminal. The sender then prepares a text message to be transmitted with a phone number of the terminal that is intended to receive the message (step S100).
Thereafter, it is determined whether to store the prepared text message (step S110). If the sender intends to store the message, he/she selects a “message storage” command on a display section of the screen and the text message is stored in a memory (step S120). Then, the sender selects one of the message transmission types, which are classified into normal, urgent, and special (step S130), and the preparation of the text message transmission is completed. A message appears on the display section of the terminal (e.g., “Transmission?”) prompting the sender for a command to initiate the text message transmission (not illustrated).
If the text message is transmitted (step S140), the sender terminal, after several seconds, receives a response signal indicating the result of transmission from a message transmission center. The sender terminal analyzes the response signal and judges whether the transmission succeeded (step S150).
If the text message transmission succeeded, the sender terminal displays a message (e.g., “Transmission has been completed”) to inform the sender of the successful transmission and returns to an idle mode (steps S170 and S180). If the text message transmission failed, the sender terminal displays a message (e.g, “Retransmission?”) asking the sender whether to retransmit and also displays a message (e.g., “Transmission failed”) to inform the sender of the transmission failure (step S160). The sender terminal then waits for the sender's command for retransmission.
The retransmission process performed as a result of the transmission failure includes transmitting the prepared text message, receiving the response signal from the message transmission center (step S140), and judging whether the transmission succeeded by analyzing the response signal (step S150). These steps (S140 and S150) are repeated until the text message is successfully transmitted. However, if the sender does not want the retransmission, the sender terminal returns to the idle mode (step S180).
Consequently, when one text message is transmitted to a plurality of receivers, the sender should repeat the above steps (steps S100 to S180) for each receiver. For each receiver that is to receive the text message, the sender inputs the respective receiver's phone number during a separate execution of process steps S100 to S180.
As described above, according to the related art text message transmission method, the sender should repeat a series of processes, such as inputting the respective receiver's phone number, the text message, the message transmission type (i.e., “normal”, “urgent”, or “special”), and the transmission command, for each separate recipient receiver when transmitting the text message to a plurality of receivers. This causes inconvenience for the sender and makes it difficult to achieve a rapid transmission of the text message.